I helped a buddy start his kombucha business here and I brewed for him for about a year before it turned into a gong show lol and I bailed... along the way he taught me some of his tricks of the trade. And I’ll share some here
He used organic cane sugar, only because of the whole natural organic fad -thanks hippies lol. However, he mentioned that it was subpar when compared to more refined sugars - as the scoby is better able to utiliZe the energy without all the extra crap in there.
Hes now using the cold brew technique... and honestly I haven’t spoke with him since I left (rather abruptly tbh lol), so I can’t speak as to why but I’m assuming it’s in part due to the whole raw food kick... but it’s also in part due to polyphenol loss when brewing. That’s why we were always mindful of temperature (depending on the type of tea used, higher for black, lower for green) and technique (Use a pot where the tea forms a solid crust on top) when brewing.
He recognized that boiling the water drove off air. So he only used enough water for the brew so that he could aerate the rest (add the sugar to the remaining water and either stir or use some other way to aerate it while the tea brews).
We also used the continuous brewing method. Taking off enough starter fluid before flavouring at bottling time. (Let this ferment for the duration of the primary ferment.) We wouldn’t use the pump after the tea was added, just stir. Then add the starter, stir and cover.
Primary fermentation times were only a week. Secondary was only 4 to 10 days on avg (depending on the juice added for flavouring).
Seems that’s all I can think of for now. Hope it helps.
Any idea how he came to that technique ?
Trial and error, common knowledge or.
From a Dutch Forum that spells Kombucha,
as Komboecha. But was aimed at Fibromyalgie ?
Wrote down my whole preparation experiments, and the effects.
With details but never got much response, i got real Bio-Chemistry.
Always did it 2 way s the known method and a brew new style.
just to check if it got better. He uses the exact same brewing style,
comforting i was actually on to something good.
Confirmation at last.
Ended like your friend, though never got to using Oak barrels,
or continuous brewing.
Kids, they consume NRG and time. And a lot.
Almost went to a TED-X in A*dam for a short Kombucha talk.
Canceled the invitation, then Kombucha boomed,
and was on the supermarkt shelves. Missed chance
edit: after rereading got the Op mention of his friends method.
The organic Cane Sugar is essentially, the same as white Beet sugar.
Just a little Mollasse left, but still Crystals.
I used dehydrated Cane Juice, organic, tastier.
And contains the whole spectrum of Sugar-Cane juice.
Also used Coconut sugar, as my theory rich in Nitrogen it would be great for
the Kombucha. It was only it were the Yeasts that mainly where helped by it.
They are anaerobic, so can use the sugar any where, Kombucha s bacteria.
Are aerobic [float on top mostly]. So to unrefined rich in nutrient s
is not per see good.
And special Bacteria, one makes the pancake,
a other can capture Nitrogen from the air. So my attempt was
proven not beneficial. Cane juice vs Crystallised, i d go for the 1-st.
Just has lots of Vitamin s, minerals and such.
